Customer Reviews

The Children of God: The Inside Story

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Though at times tedious, the book maintains it's interest by drawing the reader into the unimaginable web of hideous manipulation built by an expert cult leader.

Deborah reveals the nature of cult leadership in a way that is believeable while at the same time unthinkable.

I picked up the book thinking to find a sensational inside view of a sex cult. What I found was very little sensationalism and keen insite into the workings of leadership - unfettered and unaccountable leadership.

I found this book astounding. Born into a cult (run by her father) she herself was taken in by his incredible claims of being God`s end time prophet. Slowly however the truth began to dawn as she witnessed increasing mind control amongst the members and a massive trend towards complete immorality. Marriages were purposely broken up in order to keep individuals dependant on the leadership (a healthy marriage is a stronghold against these incursions). Homosexualiy and child sex was also encouraged. However, the most disturbing fact to emerge was the "chanelling" or contact with spirits (demons) These demons would control every aspect of the members life. An amazing story of one womans pilgrimage out of extreme darkness and into the light.

I read this book for a course on American Cults, and found it very informative. The author speaks solely from her own experiences, and gives good advice for dealing with and helping people in cults. At times, I think she includes too much of her own opinion, but then I realize that one of the purposes for the book is to share how she dealt with cult life and post-cult life. I hope her experiences have helped others deal with and overcome similar situations.

This is the latest of several books by former cult members that I've tried to make it through. Like the others, this one is well nigh unreadable. It's written in paragraphs of equal length, contains rather a lot of exclamation points, and the most commonly used word is "I". The storyline is very hard to follow and the tone is whiny and humorless.

In a sense this author, like other former-cult authors, answers through her narrative voice the question of what sort of people join cults. They seem to be people who:

1. Believe in absolutes, in rules, and feel uncomfortable with spontaneity and choice.
2. Have never learned to laugh at themselves and at human foibles; aren't able to roll with the punches.
3. After they leave the cult, will look for something else to maintain a strong external locus of control in their lives, such as marriage to a controlling person, membership in a fundamentalist religion, or a strong belief in "fate" and "signs".

In fairness to the author, she didn't join a cult, she was born into one. Still that doesn't make this book an interesting read.